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What is smart cities?

 Meaning

Smart city refers to the advanced form of urban information technology that fully applies the new generation of information technology to all walks of life in the city, integrates the constituent systems and services of the city, enhances the efficiency of resource utilization, optimizes urban management and services, and improves the quality of life of citizens.

Improve the efficiency of urban management: Through the use of advanced information technology and data analysis tools to achieve the optimal allocation of urban resources, improve the efficiency of urban management.

Improve the quality of life: Through intelligent technology, to achieve the facilitation and intelligence of urban services, improve the quality of life of urban residents.

Promote green urban development: reduce energy consumption and environmental pollution through intelligent environmental protection systems, energy management systems and transportation systems, and achieve green development goals.

Enhance urban competitiveness: attract more investment and innovation resources through intelligent industrial system, science and technology system and talent system, and enhance the city’s industrial level and scientific and technological innovation ability.

Improve the level of urban governance: The construction of smart cities emphasizes information sharing and public participation, strengthens the interaction and cooperation between the government and citizens, and improves the transparency and fairness of urban governance.

Smart city has the characteristics of learning, response, adjustment and adaptability. Its core is knowledge, information and talent as the core resources. Through the Internet of Things, cloud computing, 5G communication, artificial intelligence and other information technology means, to achieve intelligent urban management and operation, economic, social development and ecosystem highly coordinated modern city。

Figure-1: Urban spatial connection  Techdesign  2018

  Characteristics

Comprehensive perception: The use of intelligent sensing equipment to connect urban public facilities into a network, real-time perception of the core system of urban operation.

Full integration: make the “Internet of Things” fully connected and integrated with the Internet system, integrate the data into the operation of the city’s core system, and provide intelligent infrastructure.

Self-innovation: With the support of various intelligent systems, smart cities have the ability of self-learning, self-innovation and self-management, and can constantly improve themselves.

Collaborative operation: Let the key systems and players in the city achieve cooperation and joint management based on collaborative mechanisms.

Figure-2: Urban information network connection  Petter Liu  2018

Technology

 The construction of smart cities needs various technical support and cooperation, including the Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and so on. The application of these technologies enables all areas of the city to achieve intelligent management and services, and improves the efficiency of the city’s operation and the level of public services.

 

Internet of Things technology: It can realize the interconnection between various devices and sensors to provide real-time data support for various areas of the city.

Cloud computing technology: provides powerful data processing and analysis capabilities for smart cities to achieve efficient data storage and fast processing.

Big data analysis: Extract valuable information from massive data to provide scientific decision-making basis for decision makers.

Artificial intelligence technology: Provide intelligent decision support and prediction capabilities for smart cities, and realize various intelligent services.

5G technology: To provide better network support for various applications in smart cities.

Blockchain technology: applied to the city’s credit system, public services and other fields.

Figure-3: Urban information network connection  JBKlutse  2019

Advantage

Smart city is an important trend and direction of future urban development. Through intelligent management and services, the operation efficiency and service level of the city can be improved, and a more convenient and comfortable living environment can be brought to the residents. At the same time, it also requires the joint efforts and cooperation of all parties to achieve sustainable development and progress of smart cities.

Improve the efficiency of urban public services: Through big data, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and other technologies and means to achieve information interconnection and sharing, resource optimization and service fine management, improve the efficiency and quality of urban public services.

Optimize resource utilization and save energy: Using big data to analyze urban traffic flow and population distribution can reduce traffic congestion and improve the green travel rate of cities; The intelligent power supply system can optimize the distribution network, realize intelligent monitoring, and improve the power supply efficiency and power quality of the grid.

Make the city safer: Through video technology and face recognition technology, increase investigation efforts and improve the detection speed of many cases.

More effective use of urban resources: fully integrate, excavate and utilize information technology and information resources, gather human wisdom, give things intelligence, achieve accurate management of various areas of the city, and realize the intensive use of urban resources.

Residents feel more involved: The application of smart city technology allows residents not only to live in the city, but also to participate more in the management of the city.

Reference

  1. Goldsmith, Stephen (16 September 2021). “As the Chorus of Dumb City Advocates Increases, How Do We Define the Truly Smart City?”. datasmart.ash.harvard.edu. Retrieved 27 August2022.
  2. ^ Fourtané, Susan (16 November 2018). “Connected Vehicles in Smart Cities: The Future of Transportation”. Interesting Engineering.com. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
  3. ^ César de Lima Araújo, Henrique; Silva Martins, Fellipe; Tucunduva Philippi Cortese, Tatiana; Locosselli, Giuliano Maselli (2021). “Artificial intelligence in urban forestry—A systematic review”. Urban Forestry and Urban Greening. 66: 127410. doi:10.1016/j.ufug.2021.127410. S2CID 244416741.
  4. ^ McLaren, Duncan; Agyeman, Julian (2015). Sharing Cities: A Case for Truly Smart and Sustainable Cities. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262029728.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Musa, Sam (March 2018). “Smart Cities-A Road Map for Development”. IEEE Potentials. 37 (2): 19–23. doi:10.1109/MPOT.2016.2566099. ISSN 1558-1772. S2CID 3767125. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Paiho, Satu; Tuominen, Pekka; Rökman, Jyri; Ylikerälä, Markus; Pajula, Juha; Siikavirta, Hanne (2022). “Opportunities of collected city data for smart cities”. IET Smart Cities. 4 (4): 275–291. doi:10.1049/smc2.12044. S2CID 253467923.
  7. ^ Kiran, Dr Deepti; Sharma, Itisha; Garg, Illa (2020). “Industry 5.0 And Smart Cities: A Futuristic Approach”. European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine. 7 (8): 2750–2756. ISSN 2515-8260.
  8. ^ “The 3 Generations of Smart Cities”. 10 August 2015. Archived from the original on 9 October 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.

 

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School of Architecture
Planning and Landscape
Newcastle upon Tyne
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